Don’t be the snowbank either!

On the flipside of the “rock out, rock on” blog (link at the bottom), don’t be the snowbank either!

Nothing grinds my gears more than watching a higher belt, who should know better, bear down on a much less experienced training partner, leaving them to writhe helplessly beneath the “snowbank”.

It’s hard to avoid the occasional lay and pray when your options appear minimal as a newer grappler, but when you DO have some experience, i recommend using it. Expose this less experienced grappler, and yourself, to movement and space, dynamics over static tension. Statues are for museums. And nobody wants to grapple with a statue.

Training is for gaining experience, not for parking. Open the game, zoom it out for your partner and yourself.

What if my partner is much more experienced than me? This is even more of an opportunity to explore the movement in space, and likely they’ll guide you through your intro to new movements as they polish their own. I understand the (crutch) strategy of rolling with someone of higher experience to just survive at all cost through defense, but opening yourself up to attacking (or allowing his attacks and movement associated) the more experienced grappler will elevate you both (and even more safely than with the lessor experienced partners).

Why stop your partner from showing you something? We are meant to train WITH our partners, not against, regardless of either grappler’s experience.